Col. John C. Moore, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 9.2, Missouri
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

Accompanying him was Col. Vard Cockrell, who turned aside when near the Missouri river and went into Jackson county. Shortly before, Gen. John T. Hughes and Col. Gideon W. Thompson had raised a considerable body of men and defeated a Federal force at Independence, in Jackson county, but General Hughes was killed just as the enemy gave way. He was a brave and intelligent officer, full of zeal and enthusiasm, and his death was a great loss to the cause. Col. John T. Coffee and Col. Upton Hays were also recruiting in the same section of country. At the small town of Lone Jack, in the southeastern part of Jackson county, there was a considerable Federal force, estimated at 1,000 men with two pieces of artillery, under the command of Maj. Emery Foster, and Colonels Cockrell, Hays and Coffee determined to attack it with their combined force and that of Colonel Thompson, who had been wounded at Independence, amounting to about 800 men. The attack was made just at daylight on the morning of August 16, 1862. It was intended to be a surprise, but the premature discharge of a gun alarmed the Federals before the Confederates got in line. The advantages of arms, position and ammunition were with the Federals. For six hours the fight raged. First one side and then the other was forced back. The section of artillery was taken and retaken twice. In fact, the main fight was around and over the guns. The Federals believed themselves attacked by Quantrell and his men, and fought with desperation. The Confederates were in sight of their ruined homes and considered that the hour of vengeance had come. At last the Federals retreated, leaving half their number killed and wounded, with their artillery and their commander, supposed to be mortally wounded, though he afterwards recovered.

This fight at Lone Jack was of no great importance as far as the general result of the war was concerned, but it was as fiercely contested and bloody a fight for the number